Guerrero briefs: Two ecologists are kidnapped by armed men in the Sierra de Petatlán; Movement for Peace condemns the act; Civil Monitor of the Police of the Mountain publishes new report

Civil Monitor of the Police press-conference (@CENCOS)

Marcial Bautista Valle, president of the Organization of Ecologist Campesinos of the Sierra de Petatlán (OCESP), and Eva Alarcón Ortiz, assessor of this organization, were taken by a commando-team on 7 December in the region of the Costa Grande of Guerrero. They had been traveling on a bus that was held up by armed subjects who took them by force.

Federal and state forces that make up the Coordination Guerrero group, which is comprised of military authorities and representatives from the thee levels of government who are in charge of analyzing questions of security, chose to carry out a joint operation to find the two but have not been successful to date.

The Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity pronounced itself in this regard, noting that “Both have stressed the question of the problem of Petatlán in the first dialogue with President Felipe Calderón and were members of the Caravan to the South.” The MPJD denounced that “in the last two weeks, we have seen a sharp increase in aggressions against human-rights defenders.”

In other news, on 7 December there was presented publicly in Mexico City the latest report by the Civil Monitor of the Police in the Mountain of Guerrero. This report documents 353 cases of police abuse, the most frequent violations being arbitrary detention, extortion, and death-threats, in addition to cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. It also stresses that only 10% of the received complaints were followed up on by police. The civil organizations that comprise MOCIPOL have affirmed in press-conference that the document “provides evidence that the security policies impelled by federal plans causes there to be a reproduction of risk, with the examples of the warlike conceptions and the progressive militarization of public security; the blurring of the local and federal spheres; the increase in human-rights violations and the stigmatization of victims; and finally the move for legislative reforms that generally lack sufficient deliberation. This situation, as our reports shows, is exacerbated in regions such as the Mountain of Guerrero, one of the most impoverished regions of the country, where impunity and corruption prevail.”